Amy Heckerling
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Booksmart (2019)
Directed by Olivia Wilde
influenced by Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Clueless (1995)
Themes Characters Plot
The pendulum of teen girl movies swings typically from Clueless—girl-powered, cutesy, high-fashion first-love-centered—to Thirteen, the wild, angry, depressed and running from all genuine emotion kind of movie.
Booksmart is a teen dramedy that lacks the razor-sharp wit, intelligence and delicate blend of comedy, drama and satire found in coming-of-age films like Mean Girls, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Ghost World, Clueless, Heathers, The Breakfast Club and many more that have managed to transcend their own genre to become timeless classics or cult classics.
Recall the moronic brio of cosseted sixteen-year-old Beverly Hills resident Cher Horowitz, who pronounces “Haitians” as “Hate-ee-ans” during debate class, in Amy Heckerling’s Clueless (1995), or the title character in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017), a Sacramento native who disdainfully announces to her mother that she wants to apply to colleges on the East Coast, “where culture is.”
The alumni include John Hughes (The Breakfast Club), Amy Heckerling (Clueless), Reginald Hudlin (House Party), Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused), Diablo Cody (Juno), Daniel Waters (Heathers), Sofia Coppola (The Bling Ring), and Cameron Crowe (Say Anything).
It borrows its it-all-happened-during-one-night time frame from “American Graffiti” and “Dazed and Confused,” some soundtrack concepts from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and one of the lead characters is more than a little bit related to Cher from “Clueless.”
I’m tempted to call Booksmart the new Clueless.
While it may not be an imaginative reboot akin to Amy Heckerling’s Clueless , Autumn De Wilde’s Emma.
They include two from 1996 starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Beckinsale; a 2009 miniseries with Romola Garai; and of course the loosely based Clueless with Alicia Silverstone from 1995.
Since then, it has been adapted for television eight times and adapted for film four times, most notably as the 1995 modern interpretation Clueless.
The most widely-known and loved are the 1996 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow, and the 1995 comedy, “Clueless,” by Amy Hecklerling and starring Alicia Silverstone as a modern-day, Beverly Hills teen.
It speaks volumes for her elastic relevance that her work is still so out there: de Wilde’s Emma. is one of numerous adaptations in a line-up that also includes the brilliant riffs of Clueless.
About ten to fifteen years ago, there was a spurt of teen films based on classics from Jane Austen's "Emma" in "Clueless" to Shakespeare in "10 Things I Hate About You" and "O." "Easy A" updates the convention with referential homage to the films of John Hughes and John Cusack's iconic "Say Anything" boom box scene, both of which are merged in the film's climax.
As far as teen comedies informed by 10th-grade English syllabi go, Easy A , partly inspired by The Scarlet Letter, is remedial ed compared with Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You .
In fact, this film (specifically because of Stone’s performance) is very reminding of Alicia Silverstone’s run as Cher in 1995?s Clueless.
We all recall the wit and charm of Amy Heckerling 's 1995 " Clueless ," which seamlessly and gracefully grafted the plot of Jane Austen's "Emma" to a contemporary Valley Girl comedy of manners and mores.
"Easy A" borrows copiously from the John Hughes catalog, and draws favorable comparisons to some of the smarter teen fare from the past few decades, including "Saved," "Juno," "Mean Girls" and "Clueless."
While it's tempting to compare "Easy A" with "Clueless," there are more differences than similarities.
As a reworking of a Jane Austen novel, Fire Island can’t match Amy Heckerling’s instant-classic Clueless (though Kim Booster does, at one point, quote it lovingly).
Like its predecessors, think “Clueless” does “Queer as Folk,” “Fire Island” is ultimately a friendship love story wrapped inside a sexy matchmaking romp.
There’s also fun to be had from Fire Island being almost as knowing and self-referential about rom-coms as Scream is about horror, with the characters referencing the Austen-inspired Clueless (pulling out those rolling with the homies hand moves at point) and Noah praising Will by saying “you Legally Blonded him”.
Taking a page from “Clueless,” Booster had the bright idea to update a key Austen classic, putting the gay Asian pride in “Pride and Prejudice” — where nothing of the sort ever existed before — with the help of “Spa Night” director Andrew Ahn.
The gold standard for contemporary riffs on Jane Austen remains Amy Heckerling’s supremely witty Clueless .
On a purely structural basis, its story is a little too reverential to the original novel in a way that, for example, Clueless ’s spin on Emma wasn’t.
Do Revenge (2022)
Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
influenced by Clueless (1995)
Visuals Themes Plot
With near Clueless -aesthetic and the mean streak of Cruel Intentions (with a special cameo that makes this feel like a spiritual sequel), Do Revenge feels like it’s trying to capture the pastel-soaked past and by the third act, it works.
Instead, the biting new comedy starring Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke is more closely a spiritual successor to high school movie classics like Heathers or Clueless .
As a young child and teenager, I was able to watch classics like The Breakfast Club (1985), Heathers (1988), Clueless (1995), and my personal favorite: 2004’s Mean Girls .
The 1995 Alicia Silvertone’s Clueless vision is brought in as well for Hawke’s makeover montage of the new socially awkward girl undertaken by the former social queen.
“Heathers”, “Jawbreaker”, & “Cruel Intentions” seem to set the tone for a tale that has the look and feel of “Clueless”.
In conclusion, “Persuasion”, which is directed by Carrie Cracknell, is not a total dud because of its minor saving graces provided by some of its main cast members, but it remains unimpressive and underwhelming compared to many of notable movie adaptations of Jane Austen novels ranging from “Sense and Sensibility” (1995) and “Clueless” (1995) to “Pride and Prejudice” (2005) and, yes, “Fire Island” (2022).
All of those films – save for the modernized Clueless (1995) and Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) – stayed loyal to the tone of their respective novels and the overall period piece accord.
Amy Heckerling’s Clueless (1995) gave us the 1990s version of Jane Austen’s Emma , just as Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996) updated Shakespeare’s play.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with modernizing Austen; Amy Heckerling’s Clueless did so seamlessly with Emma in 1995.
The film’s first trailer wasn’t roundly greeted with excitement, as many watchers (presumably hardcore Austen fans who have never once enjoyed the pleasures of something perfect like “Clueless”) took it to task for being too modern, too silly, too “Bridget Jones does Regency cosplay.”
The first trailer for the film was not met with resounding enthusiasm, as many viewers (presumably hardcore Austen fans who never enjoyed the pleasures of something perfect like "Clueless") criticized it for being too modern, too goofy, too "Bridget." .
The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig
influenced by Clueless (1995), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Plot Themes Characters
The structure gets wonky when she runs out of ideas, even sending Nadine to the playground and then to the yogurt shop for many minutes to have a kind of epiphany, à la Cher’s moment in Clueless — Amy Heckerling has her heroine strolling by well-timed fountains and getting distracted by designer sales (her passion) as she comes to realize she’s in love with her ex-stepbrother.
“The Edge of Seventeen” will most likely become the equivalent high school cult-classic for girls (in addition to “Clueless”) that “Dazed & Confused” is for boys.
If you’re a filmmaker trying to make a movie about teen girl angst, you better damn well have something new or original to say, because you’ll always be competing with classics like Mean Girls , Clueless , and even Fast Times at Ridgemont High .
Pitched somewhere between the double-edged wit of Clueless and the rawness of Confessions of a Teenage Girl , The Edge of Seventeen ’s whip-smart script is simultaneously uproariously funny, heart-breaking, and keenly observed.
Steinfeld is stunning as the lead in a role that’s alternately heartfelt and hilarious; she’s the center of the film and the movie is unthinkable without her, the same way Alicia Silverstone was essential to “Clueless.”
In the best teen films, from “Sixteen Candles” to “Clueless” to “Superbad” to the greatest high school movie of the last ten years, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” the main characters have a way of occupying the moral high ground.
It stands in relation to the original the way Amy Heckerling's Beverly Hills comedy Clueless does to Jane Austen's Emma.
It's as if all the updates, satires and reappropriations of various Empire romances didn't exist: Never mind that Jean Rhys refigured "Jane Eyre" as a post-Colonial critique in the 1966 novel "Wide Sargasso Sea," or that Amy Heckerling transformed Jane Austen 's "Emma" into the teen-flick "Clueless," or that the popular "Twilight" novels have inspired an improbable literary subgenre with titles like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and "Jane Slayre."
Superbad (2007)
Directed by Greg Mottola
influenced by Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Themes Plot
In spirit, “Superbad” isn’t so different from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (1982) and other rude teen comedies made years ago.
The press that’s been coming out so far keeps comparing “Superbad” to the 1982 teen classic “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”
Not only is “Superbad” one of the funniest movies of the year, but it also ranks up there with “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Risky Business” and “American Pie” as one of the best teen sex comedies ever made.
It’s another iteration on the Fast Times at Ridgemont High clone genre, another story about a pair of losers who want to get laid before they leave high school and set off for college.
As Good As: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sixteen Candles, Clueless and any other teen comedy you love.
Apatow is the writer-director of "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," but "Superbad" -- for all its outrageous action and crude sexual content -- owes as much to such time-compressed films as "American Graffiti," "Dazed and Confused" and even Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" as to Apatow's previous work and such frank predecessors as "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
( "Dick" inspires the same joy Amy Hecker-ling's "Clueless" did in its own distaff pop observations and tiny assassinations.)
Hedaya (Clueless) plays Nixon with such humorous intensity that you might vote for him in spite of everything.
Perhaps the sunniest, most innocently charming comedy since 1997's "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" or 1995's "Clueless," "Dick" is a sly, extremely potent political satire, aided by a first-rate cast that hungrily dig into their respective roles with a vengeance.
In something akin to "Clueless" meets "All the President's Men" as filtered through the unintentional historical intervention/mishaps of "Forrest Gump," writer/director Andrew Fleming and cowriter Sheryl Longin deliver a constantly amusing sendup of the whole Watergate scandal that rocked the White House and the country during the early 1970s.
You could say it's a cross between "Clueless" and "Nixon".
The parallels between this and Noah’s own life are sometimes so obvious that it’s hard to believe that Leigh has given the movie her approval: for example, Scarlett Johansson’s actress Nicole here was the star of a teen sex comedy, while Leigh began her career in Fast Times At Ridgemont High and, furthermore, when Adam Driver’s theatre director Charlie is revealed to have grown intimate with a colleague, it’s hard not to think that this is some thinly-veiled reference to Noah’s collaborator and now-partner Greta Gerwig.
Juno (2007)
Directed by Jason Reitman
influenced by Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Look Who's Talking (1989)
Plot
Actually, I can recall only one American movie in which a pregnant teenager gets an abortion, and that was Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), with Jennifer Jason Leigh as the unwilling mother.
It was like watching “Look Who’s Talking,” except with a 16 year old mouthing the screenwriter’s acerbic barbs instead of infants.
Moreover, the fact that Bring It On is so willing to seem like a trifle and show you a good time is part of why the movie surprisingly proves even more fun and well-sustained than Amy Heckerling's durable Clueless, the new film's only rival for title of Best Recent Teen-Queen Dream Seen on Screen.
The dialogue instantly recalls the banter from "Clueless," which is more of a parody than the way these students really talk (at least, I hope it is), but the film really succeeds because it's light on provocation and heavy on comedy, music, and pumped-up choreography.
Perhaps the best entry in its genre since "Clueless," "Bring It On" has beauty, brains, spirit and even something of a social conscience, ingredients conspicuously absent from so many other recent teen comedies.
More "Showgirls" than "Clueless," "Bring It On" is the kind of dim-witted fun that's almost impossible to critique.
American Pie (1999)
Directed by Paul Weitz
influenced by Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Plot Themes Visuals
Jim (Jason Biggs)’s storyline also borrows heavily from the Farrelly’s movies (mostly “There’s Something About Mary”) and various other teen flicks like “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, but at least it’s hilarious.
But with a healthy sense of humor about youth and sex, this movie will earn a coveted spot next to Fast Times at Ridgemont High in every college kid's video collection.
The following year offered Fast Times at Ridgemont High, with a similar menu of sexually explicit gags and innuendo.
It’s hardly the graduating class of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”
It's as if the final print of Fast Times at Ridgemont High had been directed by the Farrelly brothers: Damn the torpedoes.
…complete with a Look Who’s Talking!-style opening credits sequence—impregnating his married paramour…
…sequence lifted from Look Who’s Talking, of all places…
The film gets better as it goes along; in terms of pure giggle-inducing brio, it recalls Amy Heckerling’s Valley Girl comedy Clueless, an update of a classic (Jane Austen’s Emma) that is now a classic in its own right.
22 Jump Street (2014)
Directed by Phil Lord
influenced by Clueless (1995), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Characters
He reminded me more of Alicia Silverstone as Cher in Clueless, characterised by a lack of self-awareness that insulates him from social ravages.
Jenko rapidly bonds with a quarterback, Zook (Wyatt Russell), a dumb blond cut from the same cutup cloth as Jeff Spicoli, the stoner from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” while Schmidt cuddles with a fetching young woman, Maya (Amber Stevens).
The Art of Getting By (2011)
Directed by Gavin Wiesen
influenced by Clueless (1995), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Themes
His English teacher, Ms. Herman (Alicia "Clueless" Silverstone, reminding us what a charming screen presence she can have), is thrilled by his observations on 'The Mayor of Casterbridge,' but not by his failure to turn in his thesis.
It's a nothing part, but it reminds me of Silverstone's brilliant turn in the fabulous "Clueless," 16 -- gulp -- years ago.
It’s kinda neat to see Alicia Silverstone ( Beauty Shop ) here, gone from Clueless student to deeply disappointed teacher who does not want to coddle George.
And proving to "Clueless" fans the world over that we're all getting old, Alicia Silverstone (2006's " Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker ") dresses down as English teacher Ms. Herman, who recognizes George's untapped potential.
Crafted not to give the slightest offense, The Art of Getting By makes the greatand even the mediocreteen movies of 30 years ago, like Fast Times at Ridgemont High , Fame, and Foxes, look even more radical in comparison, with their depiction of obnoxious, horny, property-destroying teens.
As directed by Stephen Herek, the movie is a masterful atemporal combination of 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (outlandish whimsy), 1995’s Clueless (lovable SoCal dimwittery), 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Bill and Ted are proudly devolved sons of Spicoli), and 2019’s third season of Stranger Things (big mall energy).
I can recommend Joe Wright’s faithful “Pride and Prejudice” adaptation as readily as airhead Austen parody “Clueless” or zombie gut-muncher “Night of the Living Dead.”
It helps enormously that Jane Austen’s romantic and comic novels are surprisingly sturdy beasts, regularly prompting great adaptations (Sense & Sensibility), witty updates (Metropolitan, Clueless), ethnic riffs (Bride & Prejudice, From Prada to Nada) and serving as a skeleton for other classics, too (Bridget Jones’s Diary).